We stopped to eat lunch at the park entrance, where we then got some closer views of the cockatoos in the trees around the picnic ground. We were also attacked by a whistling kite (hence the title of this post). I was sitting down with my sandwich when the bird swooped out of a tree, struck at the hand of the guy next to me, and flew off again. There was no harm done to the guy, and we were all just sorta shocked at the bird that was so close to us. It sat in the trees watching us the rest of the time we ate, occasionally going for scraps on the ground.
After lunch we hit up Ubirr, a famous Aboriginal art site, with paintings on rock overhangs and suchlike. Some of them are up to fifty thousand years old, so that was impressive. Of course, I was far more interested in the occasional rock wallaby hopping around... At the top of the walking trail, we got some incredible views of the floodplain and the park as a whole. (as a point of reference: Kakadu National Park is a slight bit bigger than New Jersey... whole lot cleaner and more interesting, though).
After Ubirr, we went to our campsite and got ourselves settled in tents and around the fire. Dinner was crocodile, kangaroo, buffalo and trimmings. Crocodile is pretty good, like chicken with a slight fishy taste and pretty chewy. Also had a bit of fat on it. Kangaroo is GREAT. It was like tender beef, with a gamey flavor to it. The water buffalo tasted kinda like Salisbury Steak, so that was all good too. Sitting around the fire, I got a lesson in star navigation from our TA, involving the Southern Cross and some pointer stars, how to find true south. The stars, out in the middle of 40,000 square klicks of nothing, are incredible. I also saw a sugar glider in a tree, then swooping to another, so that was awesome too (for non-animal folks: marsupial flying squirrel, with big eyes).
After dinner sitting around the fire, we talked with our guides a lot. One of them, Johnny (a member of the Aboriginal clan that maintains most of Kakadu) held forth on Steve Irwin for us. Basic summation: " 'e's a wanker" and downhill from there. They all think he's a complete fool for screwing around with crocs like he does, and especially the baby thing.... After that, we turned in to the tents for an early start the next day.
